Charging for a voucher now I cant use my booking - is that OK?

Jonesyjak

It was over the phone, so not in writing. Looks like we're off to York for 2 days, against gov guidance! 

Yahoo_Mail

You're allowed to travel outside your area if you want.  It is advisory, not law.

People were "advised" against going abroad, advised against "socialising" in pubs, bars, restaurants, their gardens..

Ignore it, and enjoy your holiday.

Manxman_in_exile

Unless it's actually illegal to leave Liverpool (I can't keep up to speed with what you can and can't do) I'd go and drive the car.

Spank

Just tell the police your an MP.

Aylesbury_Duck

Yahoo_Mail said:

You're allowed to travel outside your area if you want.  It is advisory, not law.

People were "advised" against going abroad, advised against "socialising" in pubs, bars, restaurants, their gardens..

Ignore it, and enjoy your holiday.

And this is why we're in the mess we're in:  Self-exceptionalism.  Almost everyone agrees with the rules but almost everyone seems to find a justification for why they should break them.

Manxman_in_exile

FWIW I may be in the minority here as I'm not sure that I do agree with the rules.

I'm not at all convinced that the perceived benefits a virtual economic shut-down will bring (or has brought) in terms of slowing the spread of infection justify the long term economic, health and social costs.

This covid infection and others like it will probably be around for a long time.  We may (or may not) develop a vaccine for covid, but new viruses are going to keep appearing (some more deadly than covid) and we won't start off with vaccines against any of them.  If we can't adapt to function effectively with them without shutting up shop, that's the end of our civilisation.

(There's a rather interesting book titled Spillover by David Quammen.  It traces the history of various diseases which crossed the species barrier into humans.  It came out in 2012 and clearly predicted a deadly global pandemic originating from bats in a wet market in China...)

I'd better stop before I get the thread closed.

Jonesyjak

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Yahoo_Mail said:

You're allowed to travel outside your area if you want.  It is advisory, not law.

People were "advised" against going abroad, advised against "socialising" in pubs, bars, restaurants, their gardens..

Ignore it, and enjoy your holiday.

And this is why we're in the mess we're in:  Self-exceptionalism.  Almost everyone agrees with the rules but almost everyone seems to find a justification for why they should break them.

I completely agree. We've really stuck to all of the rules and guidance throughout but feel like there's no other option go against guidance here (and I do appreciate that it's advisory, not law but it's in place for a reason). But if it's a choice between going, not going and losing £295 or paying £95 to move the booking, we'll be going
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply. It stinks but (for the 100th time this weekend), 'it is what it is'!

davidmcn

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Yahoo_Mail said:

You're allowed to travel outside your area if you want.  It is advisory, not law.

People were "advised" against going abroad, advised against "socialising" in pubs, bars, restaurants, their gardens..

Ignore it, and enjoy your holiday.

And this is why we're in the mess we're in:  Self-exceptionalism.  Almost everyone agrees with the rules but almost everyone seems to find a justification for why they should break them.

The point of the restrictions is to reduce the aggregate amount of contact between people, there are always going to be exceptions of some sort. I can't immedately find the equivalent advice for England, but certainly in Scotland the government have been clear that you are free to go on trips within Scotland which were booked before the current restrictions came into force, even where general advice for your area is to restrict travel. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Jonesyjak said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Yahoo_Mail said:

You're allowed to travel outside your area if you want.  It is advisory, not law.

People were "advised" against going abroad, advised against "socialising" in pubs, bars, restaurants, their gardens..

Ignore it, and enjoy your holiday.

And this is why we're in the mess we're in:  Self-exceptionalism.  Almost everyone agrees with the rules but almost everyone seems to find a justification for why they should break them.

I completely agree. We've really stuck to all of the rules and guidance throughout but feel like there's no other option go against guidance here (and I do appreciate that it's advisory, not law but it's in place for a reason). But if it's a choice between going, not going and losing £295 or paying £95 to move the booking, we'll be going
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply. It stinks but (for the 100th time this weekend), 'it is what it is'!

Q.E.D.

Aylesbury_Duck

Manxman_in_exile said:

FWIW I may be in the minority here as I'm not sure that I do agree with the rules.

I'm not at all convinced that the perceived benefits a virtual economic shut-down will bring (or has brought) in terms of slowing the spread of infection justify the long term economic, health and social costs.

This covid infection and others like it will probably be around for a long time.  We may (or may not) develop a vaccine for covid, but new viruses are going to keep appearing (some more deadly than covid) and we won't start off with vaccines against any of them.  If we can't adapt to function effectively with them without shutting up shop, that's the end of our civilisation.

(There's a rather interesting book titled Spillover by David Quammen.  It traces the history of various diseases which crossed the species barrier into humans.  It came out in 2012 and clearly predicted a deadly global pandemic originating from bats in a wet market in China...)

I'd better stop before I get the thread closed.

Neither am I, but once the government determined the approach we'd take in England, it requires wholesale compliance for it to work. If people all make decisions based on their personal circumstances and decide which rules are worth following and which aren't, we'll never get on top of the virus spread.  I agree it's going to be impossible to eliminate it, but it's completely out of control thanks to a government that has quite simply failed to introduce an effective track and trace system and has muddled its messages, and a public that thinks it knows better or that the rules shouldn't apply to them.

The sobering statistic for me is c.43,000 covid deaths WITH restrictions in place.  What might it have been if we'd all carried on as normal?

OP is just one more who justifies going against advice because it might cost them money otherwise.   Just one more won't make any difference though, will it?  Will it?